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LED Tail and Third Brake Lights????
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 391
Likes: 4
From: New Lenox IL
St. Jude Donor '12
LED Tail and Third Brake Lights????
Trying to decide if I should upgrade my tail and third brake lights to LED's. And what better place to get some advice. I have the brushed aluminum bezels and trim on the rear now and love it and want to keep and just wondering if it would be worth it to upgrade to the LED's. I have seen the kits on ebay for about $200 total which is a pretty cheap mod.
Are there different type of LED kits for the tail lights? I haven't seen many for sale and they appear to be the same. Any suggestions on where and what to buy?
My other thought was just to upgrade the factory bulbs to LED's instead doing the LED kit's. Anyone tried this? I see they sell white, superwhite, and super red?
Does it matter what color?
If you do this, will you get the hyperflash?
Has anyone done this with the same set up? If so, post some pics so I can see what it looks like.
Also, mine is a convertible, so how do you access the third brake light? Is that through the trunk?
Here is what the rear looks like now.
Looking for pros and cons, and pics...
Thanks for the help.
Are there different type of LED kits for the tail lights? I haven't seen many for sale and they appear to be the same. Any suggestions on where and what to buy?
My other thought was just to upgrade the factory bulbs to LED's instead doing the LED kit's. Anyone tried this? I see they sell white, superwhite, and super red?
Does it matter what color?
If you do this, will you get the hyperflash?
Has anyone done this with the same set up? If so, post some pics so I can see what it looks like.
Also, mine is a convertible, so how do you access the third brake light? Is that through the trunk?
Here is what the rear looks like now.
Looking for pros and cons, and pics...
Thanks for the help.
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 391
Likes: 4
From: New Lenox IL
St. Jude Donor '12
Cool!!!!!!
One down, 4 tail lights to go.
Hard to see it when you always drive it. Just had my daughter help assist me and put her foot on the brake so I could see it. Definitely the third brake light is LED but not much brighter than the tail lights. The tails lights are the regular bulbs still, you can see them if you look close through the tail light covers. Hard to get a good pic though.
One down, 4 tail lights to go.
Hard to see it when you always drive it. Just had my daughter help assist me and put her foot on the brake so I could see it. Definitely the third brake light is LED but not much brighter than the tail lights. The tails lights are the regular bulbs still, you can see them if you look close through the tail light covers. Hard to get a good pic though.
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 391
Likes: 4
From: New Lenox IL
St. Jude Donor '12
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Joined: Feb 2007
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From: Oklahoma City
St. Jude Donor '09-'10-'11-'12-'13-'14-'15-'16-'17,'19,'22
Halos or nothing for the tails. The other plug n play bulbs really provide no benefit. That's why I don't sell them.
Halos will be back in early 2012 I hear.
Check out our lighting section if you're looking for other leds. We actually test our products in our c5s. eBay stuff I would avoid.
http://shop.jwmotoring.com/category.sc?categoryId=4
Halos will be back in early 2012 I hear.
Check out our lighting section if you're looking for other leds. We actually test our products in our c5s. eBay stuff I would avoid.
http://shop.jwmotoring.com/category.sc?categoryId=4
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 391
Likes: 4
From: New Lenox IL
St. Jude Donor '12
Great advise, and I prefer your(JWM) products. I just installed your super white led footwells today and they look awesome. I hope to get the super white cove kit installed before the weekend and can't wait to see how they look. I will anxiously await for your rear halo leds in 2012, right around the corner.
Last edited by Kman1971; Dec 13, 2011 at 11:02 PM.
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St. Jude Donor '03 thru '25
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I personally think the louvers will detract from the LED taillights. But if you are intent on keeping the louvers, see if someone locally that has LED tails will let you try them out just to see what they look like.
Safety Car
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 4,062
Likes: 103
From: Southeast, Tennessee
St. Jude Donor '09 thru '26
i bought halo leds (tinted but not real dark) from jhonathan at JWMotoring. he is great to deal with, provides a great quality product and his customer service is second to none. i suggest you do a search here for his posts and pictures (plus info) and take a look. in addition visit his website. he is a forum supporting member.
Supporting Vendor
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 8,548
Likes: 900
From: Republic of Texas
I would avoid installing LED bulbs in your factory tail lights for a few reasons:
a) most LED bulbs do not have the brightness output of an incandescent bulb
b) the optics of the housing were designed around a centralized light source instead of the numerous light sources of most LED bulbs.
c) LED bulbs by themselves will cause hyperflash issues
The LED halo tail lights (which are shown on on Mr Bill's and 99mikeb's cars) are the best bank for the buck, but are in very short supply at the moment.
There is ONE company whose LED bulbs can provide a reasonable substitute for the factory bulbs in the OEM housing:
http://www.elef-usa.com/apps/webstor...s/show/1677807
They are pretty expensive at $50/ea, but their design makes them a perfect bulb-style substitute and their output is freakishly bright. I use the amber ones in my dark-tinted corner lights and there's no question when I'm turning.
a) most LED bulbs do not have the brightness output of an incandescent bulb
b) the optics of the housing were designed around a centralized light source instead of the numerous light sources of most LED bulbs.
c) LED bulbs by themselves will cause hyperflash issues
The LED halo tail lights (which are shown on on Mr Bill's and 99mikeb's cars) are the best bank for the buck, but are in very short supply at the moment.
There is ONE company whose LED bulbs can provide a reasonable substitute for the factory bulbs in the OEM housing:
http://www.elef-usa.com/apps/webstor...s/show/1677807
They are pretty expensive at $50/ea, but their design makes them a perfect bulb-style substitute and their output is freakishly bright. I use the amber ones in my dark-tinted corner lights and there's no question when I'm turning.
CF "Young" Senior Member
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 4,034
Likes: 26
From: Cupertino CA
St. Jude Donor '12
I'd love to see a halo-style mod for the euro taillights. I really like my red / clear euros, but don't care for the fact that the bottom half of the lens isn't illuminated. I know someone made a set of custom euro-style taillights with a halo setup at one point, but I didn't care for the changes they made to the inset lenses for the signals.
Supporting Vendor
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 8,548
Likes: 900
From: Republic of Texas
I'd love to see a halo-style mod for the euro taillights. I really like my red / clear euros, but don't care for the fact that the bottom half of the lens isn't illuminated. I know someone made a set of custom euro-style taillights with a halo setup at one point, but I didn't care for the changes they made to the inset lenses for the signals.
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 391
Likes: 4
From: New Lenox IL
St. Jude Donor '12
I couldn't wait for the halo's to be in stock and I was unsure how they would look with the bezels so I took a chance on Alfaotto Black Rear LED's. I figured if I didn't like them I could sell them on ebay cheap and get the halo's when they are in stock again. Simple install, took all of 15 minutes, plug and play, no problems at all. Very bright and I have to admit, the black blends well with my MSG/Black/Chrome color scheme. The picture below shows them but does not do them justice just as pictures of the paint unless you see it in person, but so far I love them. The picture is cool though with the bright sun beams shining in on Christmas Eve in Chicago, no white Christmas this year, but I got to take the Vette out instead, I'll take that every Christmas. 
